Creatures By Poll - An experiment in monster creation (READ THIS before you vote!)

[BOZ]

ok, here's my idea. i want to try a group collaberative effort, to see what will happen. with a series of polls in the "general monster talk" forum at the creature catalog's message boards, we're going to create a new D&D monster. it will be in a few steps, taking it a little bit at a time. first will be creating the basics of a monster - that which guide how the rest of it will be, such as type, size, and Hit Dice. then, adding some things that help define what it can do, like ability scores, special attacks and special qualities. then, the rest of the process will be fleshing it out to make it a playable creature. like the idea? post some comments here. don't like it? post some comments here.
unless this is a universally hated idea, i will start posting the polls on the enworld forums later today.

 

[Sixten]

Interesting...

Sort of an interesting twist on the chain story. Also reminds me of that old chestnut about the nature of camels...

For whatever my noob opinion is worth, sounds like fun!

(Another variant, sort of based on a column running on RPGnet: cook up some tables for size, type, etc.; roll up a random combination, and let people post their varying interpretations of what it might be.)

Sixten

 

[BOZ]

Re: Interesting...

(Another variant, sort of based on a column running on RPGnet: cook up some tables for size, type, etc.; roll up a random combination, and let people post their varying interpretations of what it might be.)

actually, that sounds sort of like what i was thinking.

 

[Darraketh]

"Yes, umm... excuse me!"

"Would be so kind as to direct me to the monster lab?"

Sounds like fun BOZ. Actually I was thinking that we needed an "Activity Coordinator" on this boat.

Let's make a monster!

 

[gamecat]

Excellent Idyea! Consider my participation yours!

 

[pyrobob]

I'm game!

 

[BOZ]

well, that certainly sounds like a positive response.

ok, here's how it's going to work. first of all, we're going to decide how many we're going to do, this first time around. could be just 1, but i'm willing to try as many as 6 (though this will take some time, it may yeild some nice results.) you let me know what you think. maybe we could design them all to relate together somehow, or maybe they'll just be for individual results.

the first part of this process is to determine the basics:
Type, Hit Dice, Size, and Alignment. No matter how many creatures we're creating right now, only one of each type, size, alignment, and hit dice range will come out. so, there won't be two huge chaotic evil outsiders with 20 HD ok? that's the point, i think, encouraging diversity.

my current plan, should there be more than one monster, is to take the most popular choices for each category and match them up to make monster 1, then take the second most popular choices for monster 2, etc.

i plan to give these polls 10 days to run their course (i was going to go with 5 days, but i'll be going out of town, so i'll just have to get to them when i get a chance), at which point i will move on to step two. have fun! and post comments and ideas freely, please.

 

[Pale]

Just wanted to let you know that I've thrown in my 2cp, BOZ.

 

[BOZ]

thank you kindly, o pale writer.

i'm truly amazed at just how much of a response i've gotten so far, and i just posted this just about 5 1/2 hours ago in the middle of the night (in the US at least)!

thanks all, i hope you enjoy the results and continuing work!

 

[Ferret]

I'm in. Boz will there be 2 of the same type even?And what happens if there is a tie?